Friday, November 28, 2008

Battling the Black Friday crowds paid off for me for a year. Headed out to look at the sales Ultimate Electronics, Circuit City, and Best Buy had on video cameras. I found a nice camera over at Best Buy and i didnt like the selection at the other stores so i went ahead and bought it. Its a JVC 30 GB HDD 35x optical zoom laser touch camera that i bought for $320 including tax. It is a huge upgrade from my old tape non-digital video camera i have been borrowing from my aunt (i dont think i've used that camera since 2006 since it is pretty much obsolete). My new camera has up to 7 hours of space from video which should be enough since i dont plan on recording an entire chase from start to finish. I need to pick up an extra battery for it (maybe a christmas gift) but other than that i should be set for video for '09. I also need to find a dash cam mount (along with the current project of finding/building a laptop mount). If anyone has any suggestions for dash cam mounts i would love to hear them!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I am down at my sister's home with my brother and my other sister getting the food ready for tonight when the rest of the family comes down. Again I hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Im trying to put together a compilation chase video from my chases from 2006-2008 but i realized i didnt take much video in that time which i am really now regretting. Im going to try to put this video together but it will be mostly still pics so we'll see how it turns out. i guess this is just one more thing to keep in mind for next season.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Uggghhh, Christmas movies are already starting on some of the channels and they look about as bad as some ot the SciFi channel "original" movies. Anyways, i think i may have lost the memory card from the 2006 and part of the 2007 season which really sucks since i really wanted to watch a video i took from August 5th, 2006. The memory card's gotta be around here somewhere but im going to have a helluva time finding it. Also, im looking for some ideas for a laptop and video camera mount. if you have any ideas PLEASE let me know! i was looking at some music stands at work and was trying to think about how i could duplicate that. Gonna head over to Menards or Ax Man soon and see if i can figure something out but if you have any opinions or ideas feel free to leave a comment!

I was driving around the neighborhood last week and saw a car with plates WX0SVR and had ham radio antennas on the roof. if i recall right it was a white Crown Vic. and i was just wondering if anyone knows who this was and would like to know the other weather weenies around here. I dont think i have ever seen another car equipped like that in New Brighton (although i shouldnt be suprised).

On a different note i was going thru some old stuff from May 31, 2008 and came across a short video i took driving on I94 towards Minneapolis. I really wish i had started recording earlier but i was concentrating more on driving. Anyways, its nothing special but it brings me back good memories of that day and helps me get thru atleast one more day of winter. Just before i started recording i had been in the hail core for a good 15-20 minutes. Its suprising how loud the hail was for only being about quarter size.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

SDS has hit pretty hard already so i've been giving a lot of thought to what i want to buy this offseason for chasing next season. I highly doubt i will actually end up buying all these (although that would be awesome if i did) but these are what i want:1. Ham radio (after nearly 3 years of procrastinating its probably time to get this)2. Truckers antenna (for whatever reason i seemed to always be out of Verizon's territory last here, hopefully this will help)3. Laptop mount (what a pain in the ass it was to have to look all the way over to the passenger seat to look at my computer instead of having it right in front of me)4. New cell phone (my phone's battery really took a beating from tethering this past season plus the 1000 times i dropped the phone isnt good for it either)5. New video camera (mine as well join the 21st century and finally go digital, i was at Ultimate Electronics looking at some JVC cameras, they were all very nice and easy to function, the one i was looking at the most had a zoom of 25x!)6. New camera (i need a DSLR, not so much for chasing but for other photography, i need something with a much larger f/stop than the Cannon Powershot i use now)7. Verizon aircard (with the Verizon/Alltell merger the coverage for Verizon should be much better plus i had trouble with tethering, hoping this would be better, only down fall is you are looking at atleast $200)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Finally decided i would make a blog. I have a website (www.midweststormchaser.tripod.com) but figured i would also start this for the winter and random ramblings. Not much else to say, check back for whatever i have to say!!!